A before and after of my hood hinges using electrolysis. The hinge on the right is painted but it still gives a good idea. Ever heard of electrolysis as a way to remove rust? Me either until recently.... Its super simple and the most effective way to remove rust I have seen so far. The down side is that it is much easier for small parts than large pieces. My project fits in to the Rustang category so rust is the hardest battle I have on this car. Here is how it works: Take a plastic bucket and fill it with water high enough to completely submerge your rusty part. Its important to note that the bucket must be plastic and not metal. You then want to put in about 1 cup of washing soda per gallon of water. It is similar to baking soda and you can find it at your local grocery store, usually tucked away in an obscure corner. You next want to hang your part in water without letting it touch the bottom. Using a piece of wood over the top of the bucket with string suspended from that works fine. Now you need a sacraficial anaode. In my case I used rebar because it is cheap, easy, and very effective. Cut your rebar so that it is about 6" taller than your bucket and submerge it on the side of the bucket. You need to make sure it does not touch the suspended rusty part so I use a small clamp to keep it pressed on the side and cant move. Take a 12V battery charger and connect the negative side to the rusty part. Yes, that,s right you want to put the negative terminal under the water connected to the rusty part. Make sure the metal part does not touch the rebar and then connect the positive side to the rebar and plug it in. I am using a 12V charger set on 2amps and it works fine. Once its all setup plug it in you will start to see small bubbles starting to form. These bubbles are hydrogen so you want to do this in a well ventilated area. I don't want to scare anyone since the amount of hydrogen being let off is very small but better safe than sorry. The process will turn the rust into Iron oxide with will remain as black sludge on the part which can just be wiped off. The process takes at least a few hours and could be many more depending on the size of the part, the number of sacraficial anodes, the amps, and degree of rust. It's important to note that this is a line of site process so if the rust is behind the rebar you wont see any benefit on that side. As a result most people add additional pieces of rebar around the bucket and connect them by wrapping copper wire from one to the next.Or you can be paitent and rotate your part every couple of hours. Just make sure that you don't touch anything while the charger is turned on. Its also important to note that you can NOT reverse the leads. If you put the positive side on the rusty part it will make it more rusty, so be careful! The actual metal will remain completely untouched so don't worry about leaving it in to long. The only downside is it hard to find a bucket or bath big enough for larger pieces. I have included a couple of pics of my setup below.
